STACK Jul #129

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Robert Glasper and Ms.
Lauryn Hill are just two
notable talents paying tribute
to the remarkable Nina Simone
on a new project being released
this month. Nina Revisited: A
Tribute to Nina Simone is being
released in conjunction with
a new documentary on the
late pianist and singer, entitled
What Happened, Miss Simone?
The film has been created
with the full cooperation of the
late singer's estate, with her
daughter Lisa Simone working in
full collaboration with the film's
producers. Lisa Simone also
features on the tribute album,
as do Common, Mary J Blige,
Gregory Porter and Usher, and
Nina Simone herself (on the
closing track I Wish I Knew How
I Would Feel to Be Free. Angela
Davis, the '60s/'70s civil rights
icon has penned liner notes in
support of the album. The graphic
cover art references a red balloon
Ms. Simone brought to Marin
County Jail when she visited
a then incarcerated Davis in 1971.
094 JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit NEWS MUSIC
Gin Wigmore’s upcoming album Blood to Bone (originally slated for late June
but now being released in late August) is her first in four years, coming four
years after 2011’s Gravel and Wine. Now living in LA, Wigmore has been digesting
influences as diverse as Portishead and Alt-J (the album’s single, New Rush, was
co-written by Alt-J producer Charlie Rush). The clip for the single was met with some
consternation when released online; it depicts a bleeding Wigmore
with an arrow in her guts struggling through a desolate landscape.
Think The Hunger Games, but shot by Anton Corbijn.
Once upon a time, New Order
were called Joy Division.
Changing their name in the early
'80s after the tragic suicide of
frontman Ian Curtis, they blazed a
trail as innovators throughout the
1980s with hits like Blue Monday
and Temptation, before going on
a long hiatus in the late 1990s.
After the well received Get Ready
(2001) and the lukewarm Waiting
for the Siren's Call (2005), they
broke up in 2007 after a well
publicised row with bassist Peter
Hook. Ten years on from their
last album, New Order have
announced a new studio album
(without Hook) to be released
in September called Music:
Complete. Chemical Brothers'
Tom Rowlands has produced
two tracks, while another track
called Superheated features
additional work by sometime
Madonna producer Stuart Price.
All the new activity in the New
Order camp coincides
with the re-releases
of the Joy Division
catalogue, comprising
their two studio albums
(both produced by the
late Martin Hannett).
Unknown Pleasures
and Closer (on vinyl);
their essential Still collection of
unreleased studio material and
the live recording of their final
show at Birmingham University a
fortnight before Curtis's suicide
(double vinyl); and the Substance
collection of B-sides and such
on CD and double vinyl. By most
measures, Joy Division were
a rare band. In the hands of
Hannett, their spare, cavernous
sound was between post-punk
and ever-present innovations
in disco, with the emphasis on
Stephen Morris's powerful driving
beat, the bass of Peter Hook
mixed high like a lead guitar, and
the swirling melodic keyboards
and nagging guitar of Bernard
Sumner. Curtis committed
suicide in May 1980, just before
the band was to leave for their
first American tour. Curtis's
universal themes of emotional
distance and self-doubt – and
the music being not time-locked
as overtly 'post-punk' – means
Joy Division will always find a
new audience. For years, New
Order would hardly touch the
Joy Division era live in concert,
only recanting in the early '00s –
they'd spent years forging a new
identity. With Music: Complete it
all comes full circle again.
continued
new order say 'music complete' as joy
division reissues hit
nina simone revisited
Sitting down with
FElix Bushe
gengahr
Q1/ How does one pronounce the name
of the band, and how did it come about?
It's 'Geng-ar' – we basically stole it from Pokemon
and changed the spelling. We were called 'Res'
when we put our demos online. When they started
to attract some heat, we got an email from a rapper
called Res saying ‘oh, I see you have the same name
as me?’ So we had to change it. We gave ourselves
two days to come up with a new name. We figured
all the cool names had been taken and it had gotten
down to putting two cool words together. That
sounded pretentious, so we just thought we’d go
with something silly; we weren’t taking ourselves too
seriously.
Q2/ You were all at school together: what
bands did you grow up listening to?
We were just told we’ll be playing with The
Strokes at Hyde Park: if you’d have told 18-year-old
me that I’d be doing that, I never would have believed
it. My taste is more varied: I was into punk and metal.
You can shed your skin entirely, that’s the nature of
being young and playing music. I now listen to an
array of stuff – Ariel Pink, Connan Moccasin, Kurt Vile,
Deerhunter is a favourite. You am I, Tame Impala...
people who do interesting things with guitars.
Q3/ So lots of Australian and NZ music?
We weren’t listening to much UK music when we
were writing this album, we were listening to lot more
US and Australian and NZ music. Pavement, Dinosaur
Jr. and Sonic Youth were huge for us as well. We
write pop, but it comes from a darker place.
Q4/ You're all ex-art school mates, is that
why the videos and artwork are so distinctive?
We’ve got a strong handle on that side of things. It’s
all meaningful. I work in a very visual way with the
lyrics when I’m writing. It’s a privilege to make art and
music at the same time. I’ve done the treatments for
all our clips, except the first one that was done by a
child. I just oversaw it. I met this smart kid Nico, at a
summer camp where I was. I found his parents and
asked if they'd let him make a video. He wrote the
treatment out, cast all his friends, and shot it.
wigmore's blood to
bone for august
Nina Reviste
A Tribute to Nin
Simone is releas
on July 10 via Son
Music.
A Dream Outside by
Gengahr is out on Liberator/
Universal
Blood to Bone by Gin Wigmore is now out via Universal August 28